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Ted Cruz Tag

Posted by Fuzzy Slippers on August 13, 2015 26 Comments
The Ted Cruz campaign is holding its own in terms of polls and campaign fundraising; indeed, according to reports, the Cruz campaign raked in $1 million within the first 100 hours following last Thursday's debate.  His #CruzCountry bus tour is also creating a lot of buzz on Twitter, with enthusiastic supporters tweeting that they've just met the "next president." Watch: Winning the presidency is clearly Cruz's goal, and he seems to be playing a long game.

Posted by Fuzzy Slippers on August 11, 2015 87 Comments
Following last Thursday's debate, Ted Cruz's support has more than doubled according to an NBC poll.  Matthew Burke reports:
In a new NBC News/Survey Monkey poll released on Sunday, Texas Senator Ted Cruz, a constitutional conservative, catapulted into second place overall, increasing by a whopping 7% over the prior poll, putting him at 13% overall, more than doubling his prior support of 6%, according to the poll. Cruz, a former national collegiate debate champion, soared despite having his debate performance largely put on mute mode by major media outlets, including FOX News.
Although Trump still leads in this poll, this is a very nice bump for Cruz.  This news comes on the tail of a debate performance, particularly involving ISIS, that Frank Luntz calls "great news for Cruz." Watch:

Posted by Kemberlee Kaye on August 04, 2015 23 Comments
Ever wondered how to make bacon without a frying pan or oven? Well wonder no more. Ted Cruz demonstrates how easy it is to cook bacon with a machine gun. "Few things I enjoy more than on weekends, cooking breakfast with the family," said Cruz. "Of course in Texas, we cook bacon a little differently than most folks."

Posted by Fuzzy Slippers on August 02, 2015 64 Comments
While Jeb's Telemundo interview this week has been getting attention for his statements about amnesty immigration reform, there is another interesting tidbit in there about Iran that sheds some light on his push back against Mike Huckabee's comments evoking the Holocaust. Personally, I'm not surprised that Jeb is promising action on immigration reform to Spanish-speaking audiences; he promises the same thing to English-speaking audiences and has been quite defiant about maintaining his position throughout the primary. Here's a transcript (translated from Spanish) of part of the immigration portion of the interview:
José Díaz-Balart: How do we resolve the problem of 11 million undocumented and what do you think is the formula for the border to be secured and deal with those those people who are here and contribute to the economy with their hard work? Jeb Bush: Look, first of all, to arrive here legally has to be easier than to arrive here illegally. So one must have a commitment with a border, and JUST as important, there’s 40 percent of the undocumented that arrived  here legally, that have a legal visa and they overstayed  And they don’t go back. We must have a plan to solve that. It’s not the most complicated thing in our country, we can do it. We can accomplish it. But for the 11 million people, I believe that they come from out of the shadows they get a work permit, they pay taxes naturally, they pay small fine they, learn English. They don’t get benefits from the federal government, but they come out of the shadows. And they obtain a legal status after some time. I believe that’s the place where one could obtain consensus to solve this problem.

Posted by Fuzzy Slippers on July 25, 2015 23 Comments
Ted Cruz has long criticized career politicians in both parties for not listening to the American people; indeed, he started a Twitter hashtag #MakeDCListen on this very issue and has taken to the Senate floor on a number of occasions to urge DC to listen to the people who elected them. His pleas, like ours, fall on deaf ears, but that doesn't stop him from voicing what so many of us have come to believe: Yesterday, Cruz once again took to the Senate floor to berate career politicians in both parties, particularly Republican leadership. The Washington Post reports:
Firebrand Republican senator and presidential candidate Ted Cruz did something surprising in the Senate on Friday: He accused the head of his party, Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, of lying to his colleagues. “We know now that when the majority leader looks us in the eyes and makes an explicit commitment, that he is willing to say things that he knows are false,” Cruz (Tex.) said. “That has consequences for how this body operates.”

Posted by Jay Caruso on July 24, 2015 21 Comments
Code Pink is a radical left wing organization, known for interrupting speeches, addresses and crashing gatherings by being loud, waving around signs and sometimes dressing up as female body parts. This week, Ted Cruz was speaking at a Stop Iran rally in Washington DC. After being introduced, the Senator was almost immediately interrupted by Code Pink protesters. Rather than having them removed from the area, Senator Cruz actually invited the Code Pink spokesperson over and engaged in a back and forth debate with here. The video is below and goes for about 24 minutes. https://www.youtube.com/watch?t=500&v=1QCbpafD3Pw

Posted by Kemberlee Kaye on July 19, 2015 28 Comments
The Republican presidential debate situation is a mess. With far too much talent, and about ten too many contenders, the early presidential debate process continue its devolution into chaos. The first official debate was scheduled to take place August 6. Or at least it was until C-SPAN decided to throw their party first. Unlike Fox New's debate stage which would only hold the top 10 GOP candidates according to national polling, C-SPAN invited all 17 contenders to their "Voters First Forum" to be held August 3. The Hill reports:
Publishers at the New Hampshire Union Leader, The Post and Courier of South Carolina, and Iowa's The Gazette say the forum was prompted in part by Fox's controversial decision to cap the number of candidates in its Aug. 6 debate at 10. “Fox says only the ‘top’ 10 candidates, as judged solely by national polling, will be allowed on its stage,” the publishers said in a joint statement. “That may be understandable later, but the first votes are half a year away and there are a lot more than 10 viable candidates.”

Posted by Fuzzy Slippers on July 19, 2015 14 Comments
The Family Leadership Summit in Iowa on Saturday was a veritable who's who of 2016 GOP presidential candidates including Dr. Ben Carson, Senator Ted Cruz, Lindsey Graham, Governor Mike Huckabee, Governor Bobby Jindal, Senator Marco Rubio, Governor Rick Perry, Senator Rick Santorum, Donald Trump, and Governor Scott Walker. I like the one-on-one sit down interview format, and I think Frank Luntz does a great job both interacting with the audience and asking key questions.  According to Luntz, the candidates were "unable to rely on a Teleprompter or note cards" and as such "the presidential hopefuls display their impromptu speaking skills."  Not only did Luntz ask questions of the candidates, but the audience did, as well. Donald Trump's comments about John McCain have taken center stage, but there were many great moments throughout the day.  You can catch all ten full interviews of the attending presidential candidates here.

Posted by Fuzzy Slippers on July 18, 2015 23 Comments
Following the Chattanooga terror attack, the media seems confused about what had happened or at least why it had happened. Ted Cruz, however, experiences no such confusion and issued a powerful statement.
“In the wake of this vicious attack on our nation we need to rid ourselves of two dangerous delusions, first and foremost that a ‘lone gunman’–as President Obama described the shooter–is somehow isolated from the larger threat of radical Islamic terrorism. In the modern world, no one acts in isolation. Through social media ISIS, al Qaida, and other groups are infiltrating our nation with impunity while our government will not even admit that radical Islamic terrorism is a problem. “The second delusion is that this attack is somehow isolated from previous episodes, notably those in Little Rock, Arkansas and Fort Hood, Texas, in 2009—both of which were attacks on American military facilities. The Obama administration was woefully reluctant to call either an act of radical Islamic terrorism, instead suggesting ‘workplace violence’ as a justification for the killings. Finally, after years of effort, the victims of Fort Hood were properly recognized as victims of attacks by foreign terrorists when they received Purple Hearts on April 15, 2015. Likewise, the victim of the Little Rock attack received a Purple Heart on July 1, 2015.

Posted by Mike LaChance on July 05, 2015 10 Comments
Back in March, Ted Cruz raised $2 million in three days but the haul his campaign and supporter groups has brought in over the last three months makes that look like small potatoes. According to a new report from Reuters, Cruz has entered impressive territory:
Cruz presidential campaign says supporters donated $51 million Republican Senator Ted Cruz and the outside groups supporting his presidential bid have raised more than $51 million in the three months since he launched his campaign for president, according to a statement from his campaign on Sunday. Cruz, who announced his candidacy on March 23 in a speech at the conservative school Liberty University in Lynchburg, Virginia, has raised far less in donations directly to his campaign than his supporters have collected for the four outside spending groups supporting him. The statement said there were 175,000 individual donations to the campaign with an average contribution of $81. About $10 million came in during the second quarter of the year.

Posted by Kemberlee Kaye on June 30, 2015 6 Comments
Presidential hopeful Sen. Cruz is a long-time fan of The Simpsons. In April, Sen. Cruz joined the crew at The Federalist to chat about his favorite episodes show off a few of his best impressions. "Cruz talked about how much he loved “Round Springfield”, the episode where Jazz musician Bleeding Gums Murphy passed away, imitating the voices of James Earl Jones as Mustafa, Darth Vader, and Jones himself," wrote The Federalist. Today, BuzzFeed News released video proof of Cruz's love for the animated TV show. "Hi, I'm Ted. With Harry Shearer retiring, I'm auditioning for any part I can get in The Simpsons." Having been part of the show since it debuted in 1989, Shearer announced his retirement from the show in May. The New York Times reported:
It is not looking like an okely-dokely day in the town of Springfield: Harry Shearer, an Emmy Award-winning cast member of “The Simpsons,” who provides the voices of characters like the irritatingly upbeat neighbor Ned Flanders, the billionaire tyrant Mr. Burns and his faithful manservant, Smithers, has indicated that he is parting ways with this long-running Fox animated series.”
Enter BuzzFeed News and Sen. Cruz:

Posted by Fuzzy Slippers on June 28, 2015 22 Comments
Ted Cruz is not at all happy with the recent Supreme Court decisions regarding ObamaCare subsidies and gay marriage, and  his solution is bound to be controversial. He's proposing a constitutional amendment that would make the Supreme Court justices subject to judicial-retention elections. Here's his tweet about it: He also wrote a lengthy piece for The National Review in which he argues that the Supreme Court has rendered decisions that are lawless examples of judicial activism and that undermine the Court's very legitimacy.  Cruz writes:
The Framers of our Constitution, despite their foresight and wisdom, did not anticipate judicial tyranny on this scale. The Constitution explicitly provides that justices “shall hold their Offices during good Behaviour,” and this is a standard they are not remotely meeting. The Framers thought Congress’s “power of instituting impeachments,” as Alexander Hamilton argued in the Federalist Papers, would be an “important constitutional check” on the judicial branch and would provide “a complete security” against the justices’ “deliberate usurpations of the authority of the legislature.”

Posted by Mike LaChance on June 25, 2015 13 Comments
The senate passed the Trade Promotion Authority bill yesterday but it did so without Ted Cruz who supported an earlier version of the bill. Janet Hook of the Wall Street Journal:
Ted Cruz Flips on Trade Bill on Eve of Key Senate Vote Sen. Ted Cruz, a free-trade advocate who had supported legislation to expedite trade agreements, on Tuesday flipped his position and announced on the eve of a crucial Senate vote that he was prepared to vote against a new version of the bill, demanding that GOP leaders assure him that they had made no “secret deal” to keep the controversial Export-Import Bank alive. “As a general matter, I agree (as did Ronald Reagan) that free trade is good for America; when we open up foreign markets, it helps American farmers, ranchers, and manufacturers,” Mr. Cruz said, announcing his switch in an op-ed for Breitbart News, a conservative website that has been a vigorous critic of the Trade Protection Authority (TPA) bill known as “fast track.” “But TPA in this Congress has become enmeshed in corrupt Washington backroom deal-making, along with serious concerns that it would open up the potential for sweeping changes in our laws that trade agreements typically do not include.”
Cruz was a guest on Special Report with Bret Baier last night and although questions from the panel included a wide array of topics, Cruz's switch on TPA was the very first one.

Posted by Kemberlee Kaye on June 24, 2015 32 Comments
Ah yes, the media and gun control. Senator Cruz joined PBS host Tavis Smiley Tuesday. Smiley seized the opportunity to peg Sen. Cruz on gun control. "To me and to others who've seen this, it seemed in bad taste, but maybe that's my assessment," Smiley said. "We all know what happened in Charleston the other day, and you were on the campaign trail after this happened, here's what you said on the campaign trail." Smiley then showed Sen. Cruz a clip bearing a HuffPo watermark, dated June 19 when Cruz was addressing a crowd in Iowa. "We need a second amendment, the right to keep and bear arms. You know the great thing about the state of Iowa, I'm pretty sure y'all define 'gun control' the same way we do in Texas -- hittin' what you aim at," Cruz explained as the audience chuckled. "Gun control is hitting what you aim at. Those comments were made after this tragedy the other day in South Carolina the other day, was that in bad taste?" Smiley asked.

Posted by Mike LaChance on May 31, 2015 6 Comments
Professor Jacobson has written extensively about the BDS movement and the effort to boycott the boycotters. Senator Ted Cruz has a new idea. Take federal funds away from schools that boycott Israel. He made the remarks at the Champion of Jewish Values International Awards Gala. Among attendees was Sheldon Adelson, an influential donor to Republican politicians. Katie Zezima of the Washington Post writes:
Cruz: Universities that boycott Israel should lose federal funding NEW YORK -- Sen. Ted Cruz said Thursday that universities that boycott Israel should lose their federal funding. Cruz's remarks were aimed at the boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) movement, which is gaining traction on college campuses. It calls for U.S. companies and universities to divest from Israel. Cruz has spoken against BDS but sharpened his tone Thursday. The nation needs a president who will ensure that "if a university boycotts the nation of Israel then that university will forfeit federal taxpayer dollars," Cruz said at the Champion of Jewish Values International Awards Gala here, where he received the Defender of Israel Award. "BDS is premised on a lie and it is antisemitism plain and simple."

Posted by William A. Jacobson on May 17, 2015 11 Comments
I appeared on Saturday, May 16, 2015, on The Craig Silverman Show on 710 KNUS in Aurora, Colorado. The conversation covered my background, what it means to be a conservative on campus, the anti-Israel boycott movement, the Pope on a Palestinian "state," the Pew Poll on Christians, and the fate of Christians in the Middle East. On Ted Cruz at Harvard Law School:
"When you're going to be political at a place like Harvard Law School, you have to be better than everybody else if you're a conservative. You have to be smarter, you have to be more well-read, you have to be better-prepared, because it's you against a lot of people. And certainly he wouldn't have been the only conservative at Harvard Law School, but he would have been in a severe minority. And when you're in that situation, you have to be better. And that's what I see with a lot of politically active conservative students on campus... [Cruz] had to sharpen his skills because he's basically arguing with everybody or almost everybody. Whereas if you're in a liberal position at a school most people agree with you, you don't need to sharpen your skills and you don't get tested the way you do if you're a conservative."
On the anti-Israel boycott movement:
"We're dealing with people who really are just outright liars. And I say that all the time because that's what they are. And they just make stuff up, they twist facts, they ignore facts."
On Israeli-Palestinian negotiations:

Posted by Kemberlee Kaye on May 11, 2015 22 Comments
Yesterday, a video released by Digitas Daily featured a condensed version of Bloomberg host Mark Halperin conducting a super creepy interview with Sen. Ted Cruz. In a series of bizarre questions, Halperin grilled Sen. Cruz on his Cubaness. The interview was so bad, the left-wing group Think Progress condemned it as, "the most racist interview of a 2016 candidate." Think Progress came to the same conclusion as many on the right: Halperin seemed determined to get Cruz on the record about the minutia of his Hispanic heritage. Facing the wrath of the Internet, Mark Halperin released an apology today:
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